I was participating in a great conversation over here at BOP and GrandMoffTexan made a comment about finding our political center that really struck a chord with me.
I take a martial arts class (Tae Kwon Doe) a couple of times a week and while I'm not very good, I have learned a couple of things about how martial arts work in general. One of the first things that they teach you in these classes is that your stance is key to pretty much any technique in martial arts, whether it's a "soft" technique where you use your opponent's force against themselves or a "hard" technique where you use your own force against an opponent. The reason that stance is so important is that it teaches you to find your center and keep it well grounded. If you can do this, then you have a solid base from which to launch a hard technique or a solid pivot point from which to turn an opponent's force with a soft technique.
One thing this community has a hard time wrapping its collective head around is the urban vs. rural divide. Urban elitism is real and we need to figure out how to get around it. Now, when I say this, I am NOT region bashing. It's a real problem that we have.
I'll give you an example. My mom sent me an e-mail the other day complaining about the elitism in the New York Times. Don't get me wrong, my mom is a die hard true blue liberal, but this got to her:
I had an interesting discussion with my brother last night about how politicians deal with polls. He works in politics, but he has a background in physics(BS in physics & BA in poli sci), so he has a pretty good understanding of the math behind polls. Anyways, he said that the conversations on blogs about polls showed a much deeper understanding than the conversations that happened amongst the professionals where he works.
Wow! Well, color me impressed. JFK pulled off what Gore couldn't do in 2000. He proved that the emperor had no clothes. He pulled back the curtain and showed W for the smirking chimp that we all know that he is. I'm still as big a fan of Dean as I ever was, but I do think that Kerry was particularly well suited to take W out to the woodshed. Really, that goes for any of the other candidates in the primaries as well. Kerry has the gravitas and demeanor down pat. Can you imagine any of them utterly destroying the chimp like Kerry did? Wow! I miss Dean and his vision, I'm becoming more and more convinced that we actually did end up choosing the right candidate rather than a right candidate. I think Kerry took ABB to the woodshed along with Bush.
Well, I've had just about enough of the Swift Boat liars, but in case you haven't, apparently, there's a new video game coming out that recreates the battle that won Kerry the Silver Star that takes a neutral stance on the issue and lets you decide for yourself.
I know this has been discussed to death, but I haven't heard this argument and I wanted to get it out there.
Bush has done may, many things that were absolutely terrible, but the one thing that he did that I feel betrayed me personally, is his partisanship after 9/11. After 9/11, I was one of the 90% of Americans who said that Bush had my support to do what needed to be done in order to deal with Al Qaeda. I expected, as I imagine many of you did, that he would take this trust and put it to good use in fighting the spread of Islamists. Instead, he betrayed my trust and used it to advance his narrow, pre-existing right wing agenda.
I know. I don't believe it either, but read this story and tell me that this isn't a good thing. My brother works as a leg aide in the California state senate and I've been telling him for a while that he should look at video game development for good ways to communicate with his constituents. Looks like somebody in the DOT plays a little Ever-crack.
I know. I don't believe it either, but read this story and tell me that this isn't a good thing. My brother works as a leg aide in the California state senate and I've been telling him for a while that he should look at video game development for good ways to communicate with his constituents. Looks like somebody in the DOT plays a little Ever-crack.
I started this as a comment in the main page, but it got a bit long, so here goes:
Blogs are an entirely different medium. While I agree with Roth that:
That's all fine. But you also relish your "outlaw" status to "gleefully flaunt" the rules traditional media try to follow. Sooner or later, you're going to have to choose between the rewards of being taken seriously, and the rewards of behaving like a two-year-old who has just discovered he can break things. You don't get both.
, he's a bit mistaken about applying journalistic ethics to blogs.
Well, I'm happy to report at least 4 Washington delegates from my precinct went for Dean. I live in Lynnwood, a suburb of Seattle and 9 people showed up to our caucus from our precinct. The votes were 5 for Dean 3 undecided and 1 for Kerry, but after the speeches were made, the undecideds all switched to Dean. I have a feeling that they were disillusioned Deaniacs. It felt good to finally cast a vote for my candidate and at least in my small little world, he won. Anyways, caucusing is a very interesting experience. I'm originally from California and I have to admit, I enjoyed it. Sure, not as many people go to them, but I defninitely felt much more a part of the process.
